← The Majority Report with Sam Seder
The Majority Report with Sam Seder
3588 - Trump Zero Kimmel One; Sun Sets in Baltimore w/ Hannah Gaskill & Dan Belson
01:05:31
It's Hump Day on Majority Report On today's show: MAGA is crashing out over Jimmy Kimmel's return to late night as they try to frame his firing as a "business decision" and not as a result of government censorship. Trump fires off a rage fueled post...
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- [00:01]
A
Hey folks, you ever had that situation where you walk into a Paki store? We used to call them, but it's a wine.
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B
I've heard that since I was a kid.
- [00:12]
A
Yeah, dude, but around here we call them wine shops. And you walk into the wine shop and you just sort of stare blankly at all the wines and you have no idea what you want. And you know, you know if you ask, you're going to get a story about every wine and you don't know if it's going to be real or not. And they're going to upsell. And I am done with that. Why? Because of Naked Wines. This podcast is sponsored by Naked Wines and what Naked is. It's a wine club that directly connects you with the world's best independent winemakers so you can get world class wine delivered straight to your door without any middlemen. Use our code Majority for the code and the password@naked wines.com and you'll get six bottles for just 39. 99. We had a little bit for Rosh Hashanah last night, my house, a very nice petite Syrah. I mean I know wines that I like, what you know, varieties of grape and whatnot. I've gotten somewhat, well, I'm not sophisticated, but I know a little more than I used to because my sister worked for an Italian wine company for a long time and her standards are extremely high. She signs off on this. We had some. I mean it's basically our go to now. And it's also, you're safe when you want to bring like, oh, I'm going over to these people for dinner. I do this about once a year. And then you bring, you bring a bottle of wine. Naked brings you wine straight from the winery up to 60% less than you would pay in a store. Because markups are enormous. There's no middleman markups. There's not the same sort of marketing. The only thing they don't cut out is the quality. Naked Wines has been around for over 15 years. It backs over 90 independent winemakers around the world to make the wine you love to drink. And now is the time to join Naked Wines community. Head to nakedwines.com Majority Click Enter Voucher. Put in our code majority for both the code and the password. Six bottles of wine for just 39.99 with shipping including the included. That's $100 off your first six bottles at nakedwines.com majority. Use the code and the password majority for six bottles of wine 39. 99. We'll put the link and all of that information in the podcast and YouTube description. And now time for the show the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday, September 24, 2025. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Hannah Gaskell and Dan Belson, reporters at the Baltimore sun who are planning a byline strike in about a month because of the cuts at that 200-year-old newspaper. Also on the program today, Trump tells the rest of the world, your countries are going to hell. Also, please give me the the peace prize. America's so hot right now. We're the hottest country.
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B
Sorry if I'm being negative. I had to take the stairs.
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A
Meanwhile, President Trump and the entire MAGA movement enraged that Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air. The late night talk show host, they're enraged by it. Meanwhile, six days until a government shutdown and Republicans have refused to negotiate with a begging Chuck Schumer. Speaking of Chuck Schumer, his leadership now has become toxic for all the people running for the Senate. Across the country, Trump does a 180 on Ukraine, says all territory can be regained. In a move oddly designed to help the economy of this country. Israel once again attacks a humanitarian flotilla. Georgia Governor Kemp traveling to South Korea to beg Hyundai to return to Georgia as us now considered a hostile work environment.
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C
I mean, we just sicked ice on you.
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A
So sensitive, man. All we did was tame 300 y'. All. Treasury Secretary Besson giving $20 billion more to bail out failed libertarian Javier Malaise project. In Argentina, a shooting at an ice facility leaves two detainees and the killer dead. No ice thugs reported injured. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us. Emma Vigland out today, unrelated to the naked wines advertisement earlier, she went to a concert last night. And I don't know, I guess, what do the kids do at a concert these days? Hydrate, Hydrate. There you go. Poppers that people still doing poppers.
- [06:37]
C
Don't think Emma did poppers at chapel room.
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B
Different party.
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A
All right.
- [06:41]
B
Kind of party.
- [06:43]
A
I don't go out. So. So as you probably heard, because it's a huge story and let's be clear, there's a couple of things you should know about the context of Kimmel coming back. It is quite clear that many, many people canceled their Disney Hulu package. And a lot of this is, you know, people like have been Meaning to cancel their Disney Hulu package. And then they just have a compelling reason. Like, half of this industry is really built upon banking on your laziness. And yeah, a month goes by and you're like, I meant to quit it. And then another month goes by, I meant to quit it. Another month goes by. I meant to quit it.
- [07:40]
C
Shout out literary hangover patrons.
- [07:41]
A
I will say the majority port is one of the only renewing subscriptions that I am aware of that actually sends you a payment reminder that your payments coming up, which is absolutely not best practices to maintain a subscription business, I can assure you. But that is the case. And coincidentally, Disney had planned to send out an announcement that they were raising their rates as of yesterday, or maybe it was Monday. And they anticipate when they raise their rates, it reminds people that they've signed up. It makes people go like, wait a second, all I did was watch. Andor over the course of like two, like five years, makes all sorts of people say that I could just like, I don't know, buy it on Apple TV or something like that and have saved me, you know, hundreds of dollars.
- [08:35]
B
How many murders can happen in this building?
- [08:37]
A
Exactly. And so they, they know they're going to lose a certain percentage of people when they make that announcement, if only because it's reminding people they're still subscribed. And I think that they realized they were going to take a massive hit here on, in terms of Jimmy Kimmel. And I would also imagine there was a lot of people and the hit wasn't just from consumers. I think they were getting a lot of pressure internally from people who worked for the network, who were big producers for the network. There were people already saying that, you know, I don't have a job with them, but big, substantial producers, like, I would never work with them.
- [09:21]
C
Now, Zoron canceled the town hall.
- [09:24]
A
And Zoron canceled the town hall. I mean, there you're seeing the efficacy at least. And there's also, I imagine, some awareness that Disney was calculating, like, it doesn't matter how much we pay or how much tribute we pay to Trump. In the end, we can't satiate this guy, so we might as well go the other direction. So Kimmel's on air and now they're. All of the right wingers are trying to backpedal and make this not a of a loss for Trump's intimidation because the government never had anything to do, according to them. And of course we know that's not the case. We know the reporting. But listen to their Story here. This is Jesse Waters and former speaker, speaker comm secretary Kylie McEnany.
- [10:21]
B
A whole compilation.
- [10:22]
D
Yeah, I've never heard them care about the Constitution so much. Their First Amendment. First Amendment. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment. This has to do with the business decision, as you noted.
- [10:33]
A
So the decision to suspend and I suspect, eventually cancel Kimmel is a business decision by abc. But similar to Kimmel, he's getting the boot because, well, he was just bad for business. You can like or not like Disney's decision on Kimmel, but until I see proof of actual government coercion of their decision, this is about Disney making a business decision about its brand. Yeah, that was a. That was obviously business decision, as evidenced by the fact they're going to reinstate him. I think he's going to be on the air later tonight. So. So I think it was a business decision. And if ABC wants to positive for one second, I just want to. Some people may not know that was Jim Jordan, who is wrestling with the question of Jimmy Kimmel. I say wrestling only because he was a former wrestling coach and he actually was, I think, mentioned in a lawsuit because he didn't protect the wrestling students who came to him and said, we're being preyed upon by a pedophile.
- [11:36]
B
Yeah, I wonder if he canceled his Netflix subscription after they put out a documentary that heavily features him in that story.
- [11:41]
A
That's a business decision. All right. And so I continue, you see, wants to suspend you because you got wrong. The assassin of Charlie Kirk. More power to them. That's got nothing to do with the First Amendment. That's a business decision. Now, I will agree that absent the pressure from the FCC and absent the pressure from the White House, a business decision is a business decision. But how could we possibly, you know, like Chris Cuomo said, until I see evidence. Well, we've seen the reporting. We've seen the statements by Trump four months ago saying Kimmel is next. We saw the FCC step in and his response to people saying, you can't do that. And here is more evidence, like, I don't know what other evidence you need other than a cable from the FCC saying, we're not going to allow for your mergers or your licenses or your, you know, your O and O deals unless you take off Kimmel, which highly unlikely someone's going to write that. But here is Donald Trump basically making a laughing stock of all those people who say it was not the White House and government involvement in. In censoring Jimmy Kimmel. I can't believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. Now, I know there's a chance that maybe Trump is trying to sort of like make it like he's too insane or unknowledgeable to actually have threatened ABC because it's not ABC News, it's abc, the network. But nevertheless, go ahead. ABC News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his show was canceled. Something happened between then and now because his audience is gone and his talent was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who's not funny and who puts the network in jeopardy by playing 99% playing positive democrat garbage? He is yet another arm of the dnc. And to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal campaign.
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B
Contribution, all in caps for some reason.
- [14:12]
A
Yeah.
- [14:13]
C
Is Fox News a campaign contribution?
- [14:15]
A
Okay, I think we're going to test ABC out on this. Let's see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers. Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings. Okay, well, there's a couple of things tell on himself here, put this back up. I wonder how many companies that are going to pull a product, cancel the show, notify the White House in advance. I mean, ABC told the White House that they were going to cancel Jimmy Kimmel. Did they give him a heads up on, like, oh, you know, did CBS say, like, oh, we're going to renew Matlock this year? Just thought you'd know. I want to know. Or, you know, we're going to have to take off Housewives of New Jersey. Like, is this common practice where TV networks report to the White House their scheduling decisions unlikely? And when he says, when he says, we're going to test, I think we're going to test ABC out on this. What does that mean? And if it was a business decision to get rid of him, why did they bring him back when it became clearly a political issue? I mean, I think anybody who went on air and claimed that this is absolutely, I mean, of course I understand why the right wingers do it because they're just trying to pretend. But save those clips because we're going to need them, you know, next time Cracker Barrel decides they want to change their logo, which incidentally, I should just say just Dylan Mulvaney. If you look at all of those fast food restaurants, they have all genericized their branding and the shape of their buildings. And it's because that industry has just become a Land swap, private equity. It's a total private equity type of situation. All of those things. It's really, those restaurants exist to basically pay the carrying cost of the real estate underneath. And the ease in which they can flip it is a function of just how generic the building on there is. Oh, this is McDonald's. It could be a Walgreens. Oh, it's a Cracker Barrel. Oh, it's Pizza Hut. It doesn't matter. But that's an aside. All right, in a minute, we're going to be talking to Hannah Gaskell and Dan Belson. They're reporters at the Baltimore Sun. They are pushing back against what really appears to be disastrous leadership at that, I mean, historical newspaper. I don't know if there's many newspapers that have been around in this country anymore that are as old as the Baltimore Sun. We will get to them in just a moment. And then later, we obviously have more stories to talk about, not the least of which Trump doing a 180 on Ukraine and Chuck Schumer attempting to justify his leadership when it is under assault from just about every possible way in the Democratic Party. First, want to remind you, people think the only time to plant is in the spring. Well, you're wrong. The fall is also good. 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Use the Code Majority Report and we'll put all that information, the podcast and YouTube descriptions in a quick break. Be right back with Hannah Gaskell and Dan Belson, reporters from the baltim back. We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report, Emma Vigland out today. It's not showing up on my thing removed.
- [23:34]
C
I removed that just so we wouldn't have a bandwidth issue.
- [23:37]
A
Oh, I see. Okay. Sorry about that. We had a little bit of technical issues. I want to welcome to the program Hannah Gaskell and Dan Belson, reporters at the Baltimore Sun. Hannah, Dan, thanks so much for joining us.
- [23:50]
E
Thanks for having us.
- [23:51]
D
Dan, thanks for having us.
- [23:52]
A
How long have you guys. You guys are union reps. What is the union that you represent, Hannah?
- [24:02]
D
The Baltimore Sun Guild. We're part of the Washington Baltimore News Guild.
- [24:06]
A
And how many people are in that union?
- [24:11]
E
So we've kind of gone down from maybe 40 plus down to around 20 ish. We're reporters and advertising support staff at the Baltimore Sun.
- [24:23]
D
We're hemorrhaging employees at this point.
- [24:27]
A
And Dan, how long have you guys been both been working for the Baltimore Sun?
- [24:33]
E
We both started back around 20, 2022. I started at the sun proper at 2023, so started in the Guild around that.
- [24:43]
A
And Hannah, just tell us a little bit about the Baltimore sun. Like it's long term history and then let's get more to the more sort of like I guess relevant short term history that has led us to all convene today for sure.
- [25:01]
D
So we're a 187 year old newspaper. We're the paper of record in Maryland. We have been purchased, passed through many hands over the almost 200 year history that we have. Most recently in January 2024, David Smith, the chair of Sinclair Broadcasting became the main owner of the Baltimore Sun. There's also a smaller owner named Armstrong Williams who is a conservative talk show.
- [25:39]
A
I know Armstrong Williams from back in the day. Actually he was on, he followed me on, on one of our radio stations back during the Air America days. We did not get along. I should also say just off the top my head. Armstrong Williams was also caught up in a scandal for he was hired by a consulting firm, I think it was, or he was a consulting firm and was writing on behalf of that, ostensibly as he was working for the Bush administration or was getting paid by the Bush administration to promote stuff without telling people. Nevertheless, I'm sure you can correct the record on that. But okay, so Sinclair Media mogul buys the Baltimore Sun. Sinclair Media, maybe. Dan, you can help me out here. Sinclair media owns like 50. They're sort of in the news right now, aren't they, in terms of Jimmy Kimmel. In fact, tell us a little bit about who Sinclair News is.
- [26:40]
E
So Sinclair started here locally in the Baltimore area and they've kind of gone around and purchased local TV stations across the country. So, you know, I think as far as the Jimmy Kimmel news, you know, Sinclair and Nexstar owns around 20% of the ABC stations, local ABC stations in the country. So Sinclair is more in the TV business. David Smith purchases us on a personal basis, but he is the chair and his family is heavily involved in Sinclair.
- [27:13]
A
So this is sort of like a baby Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch type of situation. Murdoch famously owned both newspapers and Fox News and now I think Lachlan does. And this is, you know, largely what we're looking at. So what did he do when he came in, this new owner? When they came in, and this was a year or two ago, they've taken basically what. I don't know how you could find many examples of something that is more of a sort of like regional or municipal institution than the Baltimore Sun. I mean, to the extent that those words have any definition, that would be it. Hannah, what did the new owner do when he took over?
- [28:09]
D
I think that some context here would help. So this is a person who, who does not live in Baltimore, who purchased a unionized paper in Baltimore and has a tendency, or at least his broadcasting company has a tendency to. Local officials have used the word fear monger about crime, even though crime in Baltimore city has gone down to historic lows. So it's kind of repurposed the focus of what we write about.
- [28:55]
A
Now a lot of people are going to say that this is, you know, this guy is just coming in, he's making business decisions. But as reported by Cody Battler, is this in the actual sun itself? I don't know. Circulation data is reported as a 12 month average. The most recent year was a 6 month average. In 2021, we're reported on a 21 month average. The Sunday circulation has dropped dramatically from 2023 of 76,000 and a weekday circulation of nearly 30,000. It has dropped dramatically under the new leadership. This is from the Baltimore Banner. Sunday circulation was 42,000. That's a 44% decline. The average weekday circulation fell to 18,000, which is 37% lower. I'm not easily shocked anymore, but yeah, that's pretty amazing, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with Poynter. This is a tough era for print newspapers, no doubt. It's also Sunsoft 41% fewer unique visitors to its website compared to 2023 in February of 2024. So this is a story of not like a slow, gradual decrease in circulation and Readership. This is dramatic. Like this is not business decision. This is just poor business, it seems. Dan, what's your sense of that?
- [30:42]
E
You know, it seems like Baltimore has reacted to what has happened to the newspaper over the past year. And the way management has reacted to that reaction is how they've kind of blamed it on the union and used it to leverage their kind of draconian contract proposals. Like they want to silence us by putting in a non disparagement clause in our union contract. They say that this is our fault. This is fully based on the union's contract actions.
- [31:20]
A
You know, did either one of you go to a journalism school candidate? Did in journalism school? Did they, did they teach you that one of the precepts of owning a journalistic outlet is that you don't want anybody to talk about it?
- [31:39]
D
That's not anything that I learned there.
- [31:41]
A
Okay. I didn't go to journalism, so I didn't know if they were teaching that now that the point of a newspaper is to silence any critique of enterprises. Okay. I was just curious. So the. So far the management has fired a bunch of union representatives. As far as I know they've record only.
- [32:10]
D
Only one unionized person has.
- [32:13]
A
Oh, only one. Only one. Okay.
- [32:16]
E
We've seen a lot of reassignment and.
- [32:17]
D
Transfers and a lot of flight outside to other publications.
- [32:23]
A
Oh, interesting. Okay, so what do you guys now? What is the union doing? Are we near contract time? Is it. Is it? You guys are starting to take some actions and why is that?
- [32:36]
E
Well, so we've been at contract time since soon after David Smith bought us back in. I believe it was June, June last year. Our previous contract expired contract we've had for decades. So we started negotiating back then and basically since then, you know, we've many, many months have passed and usually when the contract negotiations happen, you start with something, company starts with something you meet somewhere in the middle. The, the management's idea has been more put something in front of us not disbursement agreement. If you don't agree to this, where we're walking away. And so now we're at a point where they have decided because we won't sign everything they put in front of us, they're going to implement it anyway.
- [33:25]
D
Yeah. On Sunday. So we're only allowed to talk for so much long.
- [33:33]
A
Oh really? On Sunday there. How do they impose upon you a non disparagement agreement if you haven't agreed to it?
- [33:44]
D
It's pretty illegal, we're pretty sure.
- [33:47]
E
So yeah, you know, they've. They're claiming that we've reached a bargaining impasse because we have not agreed to every single one of their terms. We don't believe we're at an impasse. We're still in active bargaining. They have refused to move on pretty much anything we put in requests to.
- [34:04]
D
Bargain since they declared that they were not bargaining with us anymore, since they gave us their last best and final proposal and they just refused to meet us at the table.
- [34:17]
A
And so what are you guys now doing as a union to push back? I mean, I imagine you're talking to lawyers about what could happen over the course of the next couple of days before you're supposedly silenced by a newspaper and the. I'm reading too, that you guys are planning a byline strike.
- [34:45]
D
We did a byline strike on election week, which is the most painful week for a newspaper to have a byline strike.
- [34:54]
E
And we retain our byline rights. So, you know, should we go that route? You know, we've. We've scrambled this past week seeing what we can do. And one of those options could be a byline strike. We could be. We will be, you know, speaking up while we still can. You know.
- [35:11]
D
Yeah, I think a lot of our plan right now, obviously, is to talk to legal through WB&G, but to make our voices heard on programs like yours with other outlets while we can so that people understand what we're going through. And we're not the only people affected by Mr. Smith's endeavors. There's a whole campaign in Baltimore county called Don't Feed the Fox because he owns Fox 45. So the public is joining at this point.
- [35:50]
A
And just for clarify clarification, a byline strike is essentially, you won't put your names on the pieces and they'll all. And, and of course, you know, that is. It's something that makes people notice you're still performing a function for people, but it makes them stand up and notice that, like, you know, there's actually people generating this. And it makes a difference when you don't know who has written something. What. What can our viewers, if our viewers are readers of the Baltimore sun, if they're in that Baltimore area, I mean, what. What can folks do to support you?
- [36:27]
E
So we're getting active on social media again. You can follow us at baltsunguild on blueskyanx. We also have a letter drive which sends a email to Mr. Smith, Mr. Williams and our publisher. And they do tend to sometimes respond. So that is available at bit LOI Capital S support the sun both S is capitalized there.
- [36:56]
D
You could also get a frustrated email from management.
- [37:02]
E
David Smith is a great emailer.
- [37:06]
A
Fantastic. Maybe we'll do that.
- [37:08]
B
Looking forward to that.
- [37:09]
A
We're going to put links in the podcast and YouTube description of all those that people can get involved. Anything else that you want to say while it is not actionable for the next couple of days?
- [37:24]
E
Look, silencing workers, silencing union journalists, that's silencing the truth. All we want is to get the truth out. And when management has a problem with that, that's concerning. You know, this is more than a contract for raises, et cetera. This is about local democracy and we're fighting for good journalism.
- [37:49]
D
Support your local journalists. Also, subscribe to your local newspaper. I know it's expensive. I know everybody's feeling the pinch, but it really does help.
- [37:58]
A
Hannah Gaskill, Dan Bellson, thanks so much for your time today, guys. Good luck. I know it's gonna be a tough fight, so hang in there and keep us updated.
- [38:09]
E
Thank you. Thank you.
- [38:10]
D
And hi, Justin. Sorry.
- [38:12]
A
Bye. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll come back. We got more news. We'll just be back in. Well, we don't need to take a break, do we? Unless you need one. You kidding?
- [38:25]
B
Sam's a machine.
- [38:28]
A
I'll just keep going. I won't stop at all. We won't rest. We won't rest. All right, hold on. We'll get there. We'll get there. Let's just start with this. This is pretty stunning. And it is. I mean, look, the, the Donald Trump said he was going to end the Ukraine, Russia conflict within 24 hours. We are very bad at math here.
- [39:01]
C
But time's gone pretty quickly.
- [39:03]
A
I am 100% sure it's not. It's been more than 24 hours.
- [39:07]
B
How many hours are in 10 months?
- [39:11]
A
That's what you have a calculator for. Brian, you're supposed to be telling me.
- [39:14]
B
I'm sorry, I'm that guy.
- [39:15]
A
You're supposed to be. Yeah. You're supposed to be holding up a sign with that when I, when I introduced that idea. Just to give you a sense of a. How utterly vacuous Donald Trump's positions are and how utterly vacuous the idea that he was an anti war candidate was. And frankly, on, to some extent, this is good news. Although I'm not sure it is geared towards bringing an end to this war or. But it, at least for the time being, makes it look like Ukraine will get support. Here is Donald Trump's post on truth Social that announced it. Do we have it? This is number four. It is a full 180 degree turnaround. After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine, Russia military and economic situation and after seeing the economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form. It is shocking that it has taken him eight months to get this information. It's shocking. It's also, it's completely unbelievable. It's a lie, of course. But see if you can see the hints in this as to what this is really about. Because he's given you a couple of hints in the first sentence. He gives you hints and they are capitalized the hints. Remember, so much of what we hear from conservatives, Republicans and Donald Trump is projection. So he has fully understood the Ukraine, Russia military was a different militaries incidentally and economic situation. And after seeing the economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form with time, patience and the financial support of Europe and in particular Naito. The original borders from where this war started is very much an option. Why not? Now wait a second. It's unclear which which war he's referring to. Does this mean Crimea? Does this mean those areas of the dance? It's unclear why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half year war that should have taken a real military power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. This is definitely him writing.
- [42:27]
B
There's just no he wrote all this. Compared to the Kimmel tweet, it's exactly the same.
- [42:31]
A
In fact, it is very much making them look like a paper tiger. When the people living in Moscow and of all the great cities, towns and districts throughout Russia find out what's really going on with this war. The fact that it's almost impossible for them to get gasoline through the long lines, okay. And all of the other things that are taking place in their war economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has great spirit and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their country in its original form and who knows, maybe even go further than that. Putin and Russia are in big economic trouble.
- [43:08]
B
Money economy. Money economy.
- [43:09]
A
This is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both countries well and we will continue to supply weapons to NATO. For NATO is do what they do what they want with them, do whatever what they want. With good luck, who cares?
- [43:23]
C
Just give us some money.
- [43:24]
A
Okay, so why has Trump had this turnaround? Well, who do they send out to talk about this turnaround? Is it Pete Hegseth, Department of War? Is it Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State? Huh? No, it's the Secretary of Treasury, and they send him to Fox Business News. That's weird.
- [43:51]
F
But now Putin has started making incursions into the NATO borders. So the one thing I can tell you.
- [43:57]
A
Well, pause it for a second. I'm sorry. Is this clip a month old?
- [44:03]
B
Nope. It's from, I believe, this morning.
- [44:04]
A
Oh, that's weird, because Putin made those incursions. I assume they're talking about the drone attack on Poland or the drones that were shut down in Poland, which Trump at the time said we're not.
- [44:16]
B
It was nothing.
- [44:17]
A
It was a mistake. What's that about?
- [44:19]
B
It's just across the border, you know, borders are invisible.
- [44:23]
A
Has it taken them a month to figure this out? It's interesting. I'm trying to think, like, what's different between a month ago and now in their minds, there was a recent thing.
- [44:36]
C
At the Copenhagen airport that they're blaming on Russian drones, possibly, too. So maybe it's a little bit. I don't know about Poland. I know where Copenhagen.
- [44:43]
A
Okay, let's just go back. I mean, again, Fox Business Channel, and this is the Secretary of the Treasury.
- [44:54]
F
But now Putin has started making incursions into the NATO borders. So the one thing I can tell you is the US Is not going to get involved with troops or any of that. We will sell the European weapons, and then the Europeans can pass them on, on to Ukraine. President Trump wants this war to end. He said several times yesterday he thought it would be the easiest one to end. President Putin has made it clear that he just keeps escalating. And it's a race between the Ukraine military, the Russian economy, and we want our European allies to step up and the focus on the sources of. Of the revenues for the Russian economy. And it's oil and. Maria, just to be clear, just to be clear, this goes back to the original sin from President Trump's first term, where he told them, do not, do not create Nord Stream 2.
- [45:56]
A
Yeah.
- [45:56]
F
And it was that reliance on Russian energy that got us here.
- [46:00]
A
Well, look, we had. Wait, what? Wait, no, I thought it was Biden. Hold on, Scott. Wait a second. I just. You told me we could make this a economy that is in the crapper as we are, like, funneling down a hole where we're going to have stagflation you said selling weapons would make us money, but what's this whole blame it. No, it was Biden's war and Obama. This would have never happened but for Biden. Remember.
- [46:36]
C
Here'S a political article from October 2023 titled the White House is losing the messaging war on Ukraine. Now it's changing message. The president seems privately urging lawmakers to focus on the jobs that can be created by the money spent on the war. So the more things change, the more they stay the same.
- [46:53]
A
Yeah, there you go. This is all about. I mean, there's Scott Passant basically just telling Fox Business invest time to reinvest in, you know, north of Gruntham or, you know, Boeing or Raytheon or whoever it is. Yeah.
- [47:14]
C
How do we make money in this country? Weapons of war.
- [47:16]
B
Banana republic. Who sells exploding bananas.
- [47:18]
A
Yep. So there is and it does sound like there must have been a meeting at, at the UN where we'll buy all the weapons. We'll buy them. We have the money.
- [47:35]
B
He loves deals.
- [47:37]
A
Yep.
- [47:37]
C
I mean the entire Europe, European Union, especially Germany has been saying like, you know, all that austerity and stuff that we've been doing for the last 15 years. Well, we just dart definite deficit spending and not for climate, but for guns and bombs and stuff.
- [47:52]
A
There you go. And don't get me wrong, I am glad that we are nominally supportive of Ukraine. I suspect that this is the most lucrative way in which we could do this. Yeah.
- [48:11]
C
And I don't think it will rebound to the Ukrainians favor, unfortunately.
- [48:17]
A
Let's, we got another minute here. Let's. So as it stands now, the Senate, we are barreling towards a government shutdown. Chuck Schumer has been desperate to provide the Senate any possible cover in which it would allow Chuck Schumer to vote to keep the government open. And Schumer tried to go around thune in the Senate and go directly to Trump. And the amazing thing what we're watching is we're watching Senate and House Republicans so confident that Chuck Schumer is going to cave for nothing that the only thing they wanted to make sure was that Trump didn't in any way agree to do anything with Chuck Schumer because Schumer was just looking for a fig leaf. And they're basically saying we're not even going to give you a fig leaf. You're going to take this. And here is Chuck Schumer. Let's just do this one. Is this what he posted to his ex account? And now he's mad that Trump will come out? I don't know what he anticipates happening with this. What I do find amusing is that as desperate as he's trying to maintain a youthful look by pushing those glasses up, he can't help but I need to put him back down now. He has just a bigger set of glasses down at the edge of his. He went from this, this lasted for a day and now it's back down here.
- [50:13]
B
So as he's off camera, he's like.
- [50:15]
A
Get him off, get him off, get him off. Here we go.
- [50:17]
G
We know Donald Trump watches a lot of television. President if you're watching television, shut it off and come sit down and negotiate with us.
- [50:28]
A
Do we know what channel this was on? Was it on msnbc?
- [50:32]
B
I couldn't find it.
- [50:33]
C
Looks like C Span based on the Cairo.
- [50:36]
A
We know, we know Mr. Trump watches a lot of C Span. I don't think so. But like, who does, who, like who does he think this is for? Who does he think this is for? And I mean, what we are watching is Chuck Schumer is on a tour right now. Politico has a story that he is completely toxic with Senate candidates. Not, not blue state candidates. Iowa? Hell no. Nathan Sage, one of the handful of Iowa Democrats vying to replace retiring Senator Joni Ernst, told Politico when asked if he'd back Schumer for leader in Maine. Four of the Democrats running to unseat the GOP's most vulnerable center have already pledged not to support Schumer as leader.
- [51:36]
C
I think the second thing, Graham Platner.
- [51:37]
A
Said, like Mills hasn't jumped into the race yet. She's going to be the only one because he's pushing her in there in Illinois, I'll remind you, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer's best buddy, the Senate whip, is the retiring senator from Illinois. Three leading Democrats vying to succeed Schumer's retiring number two say they're keeping their options open like they need. They desperately want Dick Durbin's support. And as much as they desperately want Dick Durbin support, they still won't say they support Chuck Schumer. They're saying, I would do anything for.
- [52:19]
B
Love, but I won't do that.
- [52:20]
A
Is there any let's will punt this question bull is this yes. And Schumer's spokesperson, Alex Nayan said the leaders North Star is winning the majority in 2026. What is Chuck Schumer's plan to win 2026? It is essentially to not exist as a political party. It is to do absolutely nothing that could in any way take a position on anything and hope that Donald Trump is so hated that somehow this bleeds down to Republicans. And it may, it may work. It also sets up a recipe for. Absolutely, you know, this just to keep recycling. Let's hope Donald Trump is really bad. Here is Chuck Schumer on Morning Joe. Morning Joe, which of course is where you would go in if you were trying to reach the public or conservatives or the president. No, this is where you go if you are trying to convince Democratic power brokers that you should still be in charge. And he's sitting there right now. Put it, put it, put him up there. He's sitting there. He's going like, I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. What's that? I can do it. And play a little. Play a little more. You can see, you can see he's like, concentrate. Just go forward just a little. Oh, this is a different clip. Oh, this is the clip he said. He's right here. He's like, I can do this. I can do this. I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it, Chuck. Just. You're doing good, Chuck. You're doing good, Chuck. You're doing good. That's what he's telling himself now because he's so nervous. He is so on the hot seat from all. But he's. I'm going to get out there, Chuck. You're doing good, Chuck. You're doing good. Leaders on the Hill want that meeting to take place, though.
- [54:34]
G
That's a good Chuck.
- [54:35]
A
There's, there, there's some reports that right now they don't his show. I'm Chuck. I'm Chuck. I'm Chuck. Chuck. That's a good Chuck. That's a good jock. That's a good Chuck.
- [54:52]
B
Chucked it up.
- [54:53]
C
You should be watching Russell Wilson in the red zone. That's a good Chuck.
- [54:56]
A
I'm a Chuck. I'm a Chuck. Here is his. Here is Chuck Schumer's plan. Okay. This is his response. Okay, we're doing miserably, but fortunately, someone else is more miserable.
- [55:12]
G
And one more point on all those polls. Even though Democrats numbers are low, when you ask people who do you prefer, a Democratic senator or Republican senator? We did it in the six battleground states which were plus two, plus three overall. So it's not a Democratic or independent survey. 4739. They prefer Democrats. And in a couple of the races where we have the two candidates, we win.
- [55:35]
A
So, okay, he's first off, first off, like this generic thing like it's bad as Democrats are performing, the Republicans in these races are performing worse. You are basically saying we are just a floating piece of driftwood on the river. And it's so far it looks like the river's going in the right direction. There is at. This is like fundamentally, definitionally not leadership. There is no plan. There is nothing. It is. We're going to drift into victory. And that may be the case. Maybe nothing changes, maybe absolutely nothing changes the trajectory of that river. But we don't know that. And when you have absolutely no reason to vote for the Democrats except for they are not Republicans, there is no positive message. There is no, I mean, Donald Trump's, Donald Trump's personal net worth has doubled in eight months. We don't hear any, like, all we hear is Epstein, which is fine, that's good. But maybe the idea of like, Donald Trump's personal net worth has doubled. Has yours? Donald Trump is personal net worth has doubled. He's gotten rich, but you're getting poorer. We don't hear anything like this. We don't see anything of like him saying what the FCC is doing is bad. And when we become. We're going to do X because of it. But because you're not going to say that we're going to do X because you're not willing to say that we're going to do anything. We're just going to lay low and hope no one knows that we're here. You don't have reason to talk about anything. It's all just. That's wrong. What's the right answer? Well, who knows? We're not going to say because maybe somebody will be upset about succeed passively. It is, and it is a strategy and it could work. But God forbid there's some type of, like, I don't know, terrorist attack. It happens. God forbid there's some type of major crisis. God forbid there's anything that could change the flow of this river that you're now just gliding down and you have ceded any ability to create a narrative. You can't start it three weeks out from an election. You can't start it four months out from an election. You need to start now. And they have decided we are completely abdicating. We're not going to do any of that. We're not even going to shut down the government unless, unless they make it absolutely impart. You know, Chuck Schumer is so desperate to just have anything that he can come back. This is after Nancy Pelosi last time saying, like, I've Never done a deal where you get, you give something for nothing. Which is exactly what Chuck Schumer did. He wants to give something so desperately, but they're not giving him anything. They want to break him. And we'll see. He may just cave anyways. It's amazing. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Head into the fun half. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. When you become a member of the Majority Report, you not only get the free show free of commercials, you get the fun half. But most importantly, you help us remain independent, to survive and to thrive. You know, the idea that one day Google just says, you know what? They've, we're, we're, we're changing our algorithm is. They haven't done it yet, as far as I can tell. But the idea that they would do this or not do this. We saw this with the, with Facebook and Instagram. Yep. They decided we're going to downplay any type of politics. So that killed us on Facebook and Instagram. You see, TikTok is now already like purging and banning and blocking and, you know, de algorithming. Anything that is considered pro Palestine are critical of Israel. None of that has hurt us in terms of revenue. But the thing that keeps us from that type of situation is our members supporting us. So it means a lot. Appreciate our members who have done so. And also just coffee. It is fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. They're a co op. You can buy the Majority Report blend. Longtime advertiser and supporter of the program. Really appreciate them as well. Matt left Reckoning. Yeah.
- [61:18]
C
Last night, Dev and Thomas o'. Shea. We did a sort of literary hangover episode where we talked about the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, which is the source material for a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie called One Battle After Another. Believe is the title of that's coming out this weekend. And we get into this sort of depiction of Reaganite reaction and budget cuts and cointelpro and very good novel to read in our current era. So I highly recommend it. Check it out. Patreon.com left reckoning post game. We also talked about Kamala Harris on Maddow saying she wishes the titans of industry would have stood up to save democracy. So check that out.
- [61:58]
A
Oh, did that not happen?
- [62:00]
C
The oligarchs didn't save democracy.
- [62:02]
A
Weird. So weird. It's almost as if they're interested in their own accumulation of money. Hmm. Okay, quick break. Fun half. Three months from now, Six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's gonna be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be better six months from now than it is from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Matt. What is up, everyone? No. Mickey, you did it.
- [62:58]
D
Let's go, Brandon.
- [62:59]
A
Let's go, Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
- [63:09]
D
Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry. Women.
- [63:11]
A
Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.
- [63:14]
D
Where is this coming from?
- [63:15]
A
Dude? But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.
- [63:20]
D
Yes.
- [63:23]
A
Hi, me. You're safe. Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me?
- [63:36]
C
Hello?
- [63:36]
A
It's me. I think it is you. Who is you? Help us out every single freaking day. What's on your mind?
- [63:46]
G
We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
- [63:49]
D
I'm gonna go.
- [63:50]
A
Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.
- [63:54]
D
Gobbledygook.
- [63:55]
A
We nailed him.
- [63:56]
D
So what's 79 plus 21?
- [63:58]
A
Challenge. Man, I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8, 5, 7, 2, 1, 0. 8, 5 5, 0, 1, 1 half. 3, 8, 9, 11.
- [64:08]
C
For instance.
- [64:08]
D
$3,400. 1900. 5, 4.
- [64:12]
A
$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game. Actually.
- [64:17]
D
You're making me think less.
- [64:18]
A
But let me say this. You call it satire. Sam goes satire.
- [64:23]
D
On top of it all. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do.
- [64:30]
A
Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
- [64:40]
D
It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.
- [64:43]
A
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know.
- [64:49]
D
But you should know.
- [64:52]
A
People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled. I love it. I do love the. That. Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'.
- [65:11]
C
Clock.
- [65:11]
A
We're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.
- [65:17]
D
Outrageous.
- [65:18]
A
Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.